Tiger Woods may need to search for glass-half-full moments from his stint at the British Open, but at least the currently seventh-ranked player in the world did not finish DFL at Hoylake.
Tiger Woods hacks his way out of the British Open
Tiger Woods’ final round at the British Open is over. Mercifully.
My, how times have changed for the former No. 1, who was speeding toward his private jet as his heir apparent Rory McIlroy was unpacking his courtesy car ahead of his attempt to go wire-to-wire for his third major title.
Exiting Royal Liverpool and yet another major again failing to cadge that elusive 15th grand slam trophy, Woods drew comparisons to weekend warriors making their way to their Sunday $5 Nassau challenges.
“Even as hacks, you hit that one good 6-iron, you feel good about yourself?” ESPN analyst Scott Van Pelt, as Woods finished up an untidy 3-over 75 to close the week at 6-over (four slots from the bottom), wondered about the positives Tiger would take away from his first major event of the season.
Once again,it's typical for Tiger. For every answer we get about his condition and the state of his game, 2 or 3 more questions pop up.
— Peter Kostis (@peterjkostis) July 20, 2014 Though he and playing partner Jason Dufner seemed to be enjoying their stroll across sun-splashed Hoylake, where Tiger won his third claret jug in 2006, his play seemed unlikely to to bring a smile to the face of the winner of 79 PGA Tour contests. As Brendan Porath noted, Woods’ errant tee shots, misfires to the greens, and wobbly chips were “awful.”
But, hey, opined David Duval -- in the ESPN booth after missing the cut on Friday -- it could have been worse for Tiger, who was playing in just his second competitive game since back surgery in March and made the cut on the number with a birdie on the 18th.
“He’s not in last place,” said Duval.
Yep, Tiger got smoked by Tom Watson. But Tiger also beat current Masters champ and is tied with current US Open champ.
— Jay Busbee (@jaybusbee) July 20, 2014 Woods, who tidied up a bit with a birdie-par-par end to his week, will give it another go at Firestone at the end of the month, when he’ll take the tee as defending champion at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational. He’ll then have another chance, at the PGA Championship in August, to end his six-year major-less drought, though his play at the British should not give much cheer to fans hoping to see Tiger get closer to Jack Nicklaus’ mark of 18 majors.
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